Coronation Street star James Cartwright has confirmed “shocking and terrifying” Theo scenes to come on the soap. The soap is currently exploring a domestic abuse storyline with Theo and Todd Grimshaw amid the former’s violent and controlling behaviour towards his partner.

Scenes next week will see things escalate as Theo forces Todd to train for a half-marathon, while James Bailey’s presence and flirtations towards his partner later leads Theo to violently assault Todd.

However, Sarah Barlow is starting to cotton on to Theo’s behaviour as she catches Theo getting into a van with Pete, whom he cheated on Todd with, and she confronts them.

Next week will see Theo try to drive a wedge between Todd and Sarah, which actor James Cartwright said isn’t “premeditated” by his character but more “a plan to isolate Todd”.

Speaking about Theo’s violent incident towards Todd after the latter spends time with James Bailey, the star explained that it is “another escalation” that’s “both shocking and terrifying for Todd”.

“Theo just blows up when he doesn’t seem to be able to talk about his feelings,” he said. “He can’t express himself so he loses his temper, and he becomes very volatile to be around.”

Cartwright shared that it is “never easy” filming such scenes, noting: “Domestic violence is real for a lot of people, it often escalates around Christmas, so there’s a real level of respect on the set.”

“You’ve got to tread that line between drama, storytelling and authenticity,” he added. “It will be very challenging to watch for anybody who’s been through it, or is going through something similar, but we also have to be careful not to rush it or you run the risk of doing a disservice to people who’ve been through it.

“Domestic violence can be particularly tricky to tackle because very often, the victims don’t know that’s what it is or they excuse certain behaviours.”

Speaking about whether there is any way back for Theo and Todd, Cartwright noted that “what we’re seeing now is a pattern of behaviour from Theo which he seems incapable of learning from”.

“I think he’s so unaware of what he’s doing and how bad it is that the relationship isn’t a healthy one to say the least,” he elaborated. “Personally I’d say Todd should have been out of it months ago but it’s been this gradual escalation where the pressure has just been upped and upped, like boiling the toad.

“Theo has just upped the temperature one degree at a time, and as that happens you start to normalise it, the goalposts keep widening. Also the further you get down a road with a relationship like this, you start to feel a bit embarrassed, and so you start to cover for them in ways that you would never have done previously.”

“You start to make excuses for their behaviours and this is where Theo is sitting at the moment, which is a very dangerous position for Todd,” the actor added.